Media, creative and arts workers were in Canberra today to warn Parliament that the rapid use of artificial intelligence (AI) will cost creative jobs and erode public trust in the media.
They will call on the Federal Government to bring in legislation to regulate the deployment of AI in the creative and media industries amid growing concerns that their work is being systematically stolen to train AI without their consent or compensation.
Members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance will be attending a Senate Select Committee hearing on the adoption of artificial intelligence to urge the Government to introduce legislation requiring disclosure of the data used to train AI, and enforcing creators' right to consent to and be remunerated for the use of their work for such purposes.
Reforms and regulatory changes are also needed to halt attacks on Indigenous cultures and creative practices by fixing flaws in copyright and intellectual property laws.
MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said the union's “Stop AI Theft” campaign was a response to concerns from artists, creatives and journalists that AI technology could be used to steal their work and devalue their profession.
“Artificial intelligence represents the biggest change in the relationship between work and production since the advent of the internet,” Madeley said.
“What we are witnessing is the biggest corporate fraud in history.
“This is theft, simply put: theft of people's voices, faces, music, stories and art.”
“For the big Silicon Valley tech companies that own these machines, their business model is based on selling the work of others as their own, and we've only seen a small part of that so far.
“If left unchecked, the increasing use of AI tools in the media, arts and creative industries will lead to mass unemployment and the end of intellectual property as we know it.
“It will also lead to an erosion of news and information, making it difficult for society to distinguish fact from fiction.”
Madeley said MEAA members have serious concerns about the slow response from policymakers.
“We're behind on AI and now companies that profit from other people's work are taking advantage of that,” she said.
“We call on the Government to take urgent action to protect their hard work and livelihoods from AI theft.”
The launch of the Stop AI Theft campaign follows recent research by MEAA, which revealed:
- 75% of creative professionals are concerned about theft of their intellectual or creative work.
- 70% are concerned about the spread of intentionally harmful content.
- 66% are concerned about the loss of human-driven creativity.
- 59% are concerned about AI-related job losses.
The union is calling for new laws and greater government oversight on AI to increase transparency and accountability, changes to workplace laws to ensure workers are consulted about the intended use of AI in the workplace, and taxation of companies that replace human workers with AI tools.
AI has already been at the center of a number of copyright theft allegations in Australia, including accusations by a group of voice actors that their voices had been copied and used by an AI without their permission.
The issue has been a hot topic in the media as well, where it was recently revealed that the work of journalists from local news organizations had been plagiarized by a network of AI websites. MEAA journalist members have also expressed concerns about the impact that generative AI in newsroom editing and production will have on their ability to adhere to the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics.
“Since the beginning of human history, changes in technology have influenced the way we approach artistic and cultural expression, the way we tell stories and report on current events,” Madeley said.
“We must be aware that at the heart of these creative processes, as they always have been, is imagination and human technical skill.”
“What would the world be like without creative workers to tell our stories, inform our communities, and hold our institutions accountable? We may soon find out if we don't address the very real risks posed by AI.”
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